Chapter 189
Chapter 189:
“Who gave you permission to come in here?” she demanded, her voice sharp with absolute contempt.
Cole stared at the hatred in her eyes. Something fundamental cracked inside him.
“I am your legal husband!” he roared, his voice shaking the room. “As long as you carry the Compton name, this apartment is my territory! Do I need to make an appointment with your personal chef to see my own wife p>
Brogan set the heavy skillet down and stepped around the island, positioning himself squarely between Cole and June.
“Mr. Compton,” Brogan said, his voice hard and unwavering. “You are trespassing. Leave. Now p>
That stance — another man planting himself as a shield between Cole and his wife — was the final trigger.
Cole let out a sound of pure, animalistic rage. He raised his arm and hurled the heavy ceramic soup container against the marble island.
CRASH.
The container shattered into jagged fragments. Boiling broth and chunks of meat erupted across the white marble and splattered across the floor. June flinched and stepped back sharply. Brogan caught her arm and pulled her clear of the wreckage.
Cole stood in the middle of it, chest heaving, hands trembling. He looked at the destruction. He looked at Brogan’s hand on June’s arm.
𝘙еа𝘥 𝘄i𝘵h𝘰𝗎t i𝗇𝘁𝗲𝗿ruр𝘵i𝗼𝗻𝗌 𝗈𝘯
“You make me sick, June,” he said — reaching for the cruelest words available to cover the agonizing wound tearing open in his own chest.
He didn’t wait for her response. He turned and stormed out, slamming the front door with enough force to shake the walls.
June stared at the shattered ceramic and the spreading pool of broth. Her heart rate was perfectly steady. She felt no sadness — only a cold, hard, final confirmation that Cole Compton was a man she had to escape.
Down on the dark street below, a plain black sedan sat in the shadows.
Alycia was in the back seat, holding a high-end digital camera fitted with a telephoto lens. Following Cole’s navigation earlier had been the most effective decision she had made in weeks.
She had photographed him storming into the building. She had just photographed him storming out, looking completely unhinged.
Alycia lowered the camera. A slow, twisted smile spread across her face.
She lifted her phone and dialed.
“Mom,” she whispered, her eyes bright with cold malice. “Cole just lost his mind. The timing is perfect. Get that drug ready. I am going to destroy that woman once and for all p>
After a grueling weekend of police reports and reinforcing her apartment — including the installation of a heavy-duty internal deadbolt — following Cole’s violent intrusion, the sterile, predictable quiet of the laboratory on Monday morning was a genuine relief.
Sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Apex Bio lab. The air carried the sharp, clean bite of bleach and cold metal.
Abbie stood at the humming centrifuge, holding a rack of freshly extracted test tubes containing the second-generation drug samples. Her hands were steady. Her focus was intact.